Girdle type undergarments



Oct. 27, 1964 P. J. MORANO GIRDLE TYPE UNDERGARMENTS Filed NOV. 30, 1961 Inventor:

Patrick J. Moreno United States Patent 3,154,083 GIRDLE TYPE UNDERGARMENTS Patrick 11. Morano, Newark, N.J., assignor to Glamorise Foundations, Inc, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Nov. 30, 1961, Ser. No. 156,081 1 Claim. (Cl. 128-546) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in torso encircling and molding undergarments such as girdles, panty girdles, consets, corselets, and the like, and the principal object of the invention is to attain efiicient and aesthetic flattening of the front abdominal region and resiliently controlled support for the same, without undue discomfort or inconvenience to the wearer.

More specifically, the invention concerns itself with a girdle type garment having a front panel of a novel construction, including two superposed layers of material and criss-crossed lines of stitching extending therethrough, the stitching being so arranged as to provide a yieldable but mattress-like reinforcing effect in the front panel of the garment for cushionably supporting and flattening the front of the wearers abdomen.

An important feature of the invention therefore resides in an improved front panel construction of a girdle type undergarment including the aforementioned stitching, while another important features lies in the particular arrangement of the cn'ss-cnossed lines of stitching in (the panel.

With the foregoing more important objects and features in view and such other objects and features as may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a front perspective view of a girdle type undergarment embodying the invention, showing the same on the person of a wearer;

FIGURE 2. is a fragmentary front elevational view of the garment per se in a flat form, the lace material of the front panel not being illustrated so that the lines of stitching are more clearly visible;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional detail, taken substantially in the plane of the line 33 in FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detail, taken substantially in the plane of the line 4-4 in FIGURE 2.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the general reference numeral designates an ab domen encircling and molding undergarment which in the instance illustrated assumes the form of a girdle, although it is to be understood that the invention is applicable to girdles as well as to panty girdles, corsets, corselets, and the like.

The girdle type garment 10, apart from its front panel designated generally by the numeral 119, may be of conventional construction, preferably utilizing two-way stretch elastic material 12 which extends from the front and around the sides to the back of the garment. A circumferentially yieldable elastic band (not shown) may be provided at the upper or waist edge of the garment in accordance with conventional practice, and suitable hose suspenders 13 may be provided at the lower edge of the garment, if so desired.

The essence of novelty of the invention resides in the construction of the front panel 11, which is secured to the main body 12 of the garment along its lateral edges by lines of stitching 14. The front panel 11 consists of two superposed material layers 15, 16, the outer layer 15 preferably taking the form of open weave lace such as a Rachelle lace, while the inner layer 16 is in the form of 3,154,083 Patented Oct. 27, 1964 ice broadcloth. The two material layers 15, 16 are stitched together at their lateral edges by the stitching 14 and at their upper and lower edges by the stitching 17, 18, respectively, and the lace and broadcloth layers are preferably sized, pre-shrunk and otherwise treated so as to be compatible in size and form after the garment is washed and dried. This material treatment is dealt with in a separate, co-pending patent application Serial No. 114,- 532, filed June 2, 1961, by Leonard A. Rosner and assigned to the same assignee as this application.

As thus far described, the two layers 15, 16 of the front panel 11 are secured together only at their marginal edges by the stitching 14, 17 and 18. However, additional stitching is provided by this invention, not for the purpose of holding the layers 15, 16 together, but for producing a mattress-like effect which enables these material layers to cushionably support and flatten the front abdominal wall.

This additional stitching is arranged in two crisscrossed sets of rows, the individual rows of stitching in each set being designated by the numeral 19; the rows in each set being parallel and conveniently sewed simultaneously by a multiple needle machine; the two sets of rows being designated as 20, 21; and the area Where the two rows of stitching are criss-crossed being indicated \at 22.

As will be readily apparent from the drawings, the stitching rows 20, 21 extend obliquely of the front panel in criss-crossed relationship, commencing somewhat below the upper edge of the garment and terminating somewhat above the lower edge, with the criss-crossed area 22 being disposed substantially at the center of the abdomen when the garment is worn.

As already noted, the rows of stitching 20, 21 enable the material layers 15, 16 of the front panel 11 to provide a mattress-like, cushioned support for the front abdomen region, the oblique disposition of the rows acting on a bias, so to speak, in the distribution of stresses and strains between the opposite sides and between the waist and thigh regions of the garment, with the maximum of the mattress-like supporting action being concentrated at the center of the abdominal region where the rows 20, 21 criss-cross each other, so that a remarkable flattening action of the abdomen is achieved without undue discomfort to the wearer, bearing in mind that the supporting and holding action of the front panel 11 is resiliently controlled by the elastic material 12 of the main body of the garment, to which the panel 11 is secured by the stitching 14.

While it is preferred that the front panel 11 be constructed of the lace and broadcloth material layers 15, 16 which are treated for compatability as already mentioned, the front panel may also be made of two superposed layers of fabric or elastic material, or of one layer of fabric and one layer of elastic, or for that matter, of a single layer of fabric or elastic material, as long as the crisscrossed rows of stitching 20, 21 are provided therein to attain the mattress-like cushioned supporting effect.

Thus, while in the foregoing there has been described and shown the preferred embodiment of the invention, various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates. Accordingly, it is not desired to limit the invention to this disclosure and various modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed as new is:

In a girdle type undergarment, the combination of a front panel adapted to overlie the hypogastric region of the abdomen when the undergarment is worn, said front panel being vertically elongated and having a pair of convex side edges whereby the intermediate portion of the panel is relatively wide while its upper and lower ends are relatively narrow, a pair of side panels having concave front edges coextensive with and stitched to the respective convex side edges of said front panel, said front panel comprising two superposed and coextensive layers of material stitched together at the juncture of the convex side edges of the front panel with the concave front edges of the side panels, and a mattress-like reinforcement for said relatively wide intermediate portion of said front panel, said reinforcement comprising two bands of stitching disposed in X-shaped formation and extending diagonally between the convex side edges of the front panel, the ends of said bands of stitching terminating at said side edges at downwardly spaced points from the relatively narrow upper end and at upwardly spaced points from the relatively narrow lower end of the front panel, the stitching in each band being arranged in a plurality of closely spaced parallel rows of stitches passing through both of said superposed layers of material of the front panel, said rows of stitches in the two bands crossing each other substantially centrally in said relatively wide intermediate portion of the front panel, whereby to resist a tendency thereof to bulge by outward pressure from Within the garment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,137,163 Imershein Nov. 15, 1938 2,722,008 Cantello Nov. 1, 1955 2,757,379 Stone et al Aug. 7, 1956 2,860,640 Clark Nov. 18, 1958 3,056,410 Pierson Oct. 2, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 632,755 Great Britain Dec. 5, 1949 

